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May 17, 2012

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL (2011)

Light the fuse! Ethan Hunt was the one who ignited the fuse. What I remember most from Ethan Hunt’s character is that he was the man who killed Jim Phelps! Yes, “Mission: Impossible” (1966-1973) was a successful intelligent TV show, Jim Phelps (originally played by Peter Graves) was the leader of thiz highly sophisticated covert team, his charismatic presence had already become a trademark for thiz franchise. Then suddenly, in 1996, Tom Cruise who coming from nowhere, bought thiz franchise and killed Jim Phelps and replaced it with himself as the invincible super whiz named Ethan hunt. At that time, I was very mad and I thought many fans would feel the same. But now, after three previous movies “Mission: Impossible” (1996), “Mission: Impossible II” (2000), “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), including thiz last one, they seem to gradually transform thiz franchise to be a pure action movie, even though still with ultra-cool high tech gadgets. Not just the attractive gadgets, but also high-octane adrenaline stunts, just like thiz time Tom Cruise attempts to climb the world’s tallest building ever made so far, Burj Khalifa in Dubai. I heard that most of the dangerous stunts were done by Cruise himself. Thiz time, Ethan Hunt forms a smaller team comprising sexy, seductive and extremely lethal Jane Carter (Paula Patton), humorous computer genius Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and the mysterious co-agent William Brandt (Jeremy Renner). Its mission is to retrieve the nuclear launch codes before it gets into the wrong hands of international terrorists. In the process, instead, they are accused of masterminding the Kremlin bombing. Now the IMF is disavowed and they are forced to invoke Ghost Protocol, which means they are all alone with the limited resources they have. The Director is Brad Bird who is most renowned as one of the fathers of Pixar animation studios. Thiz is his first live-action movie after successful animations like “The Incredibles” (2004) and “Ratatouille” (2007). By the way, in 2012, Brad Bird’s other colleague Andrew Stanton also will be directing another live-action movie entitled "John Carter". Coincidence? Maybe. I have to admit that thiz movie has consistent paces since the first minute. I note that Tom Cruise repeats at least three specific actions that he has done in previous movies. The first is running from an explosion behind him, the second is climbing the iconic skyscrapers and the last one is taking cover when he is almost crushed by a car! Although it’s a kind of repetition, but oh yeah we still enjoy so much.As time goes by, it seems to be “Mission: Impossible” has transformed into pure action movie! The only thing left now is its famous instrumental theme song, or maybe the latex face mask, you must know what I mean. Other than that, thiz movie has always been Tom Cruise’s playground. Personally, I’m just OK with that, as long as thiz franchise can maintain its winning formula which is non-stop explosive action scenes. That’s all from me. Thiz review will self-destruct in five seconds. Goodluck, Ethan.

Stars : 7/10
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Jonny Fendi"Helping old friends, making new ones."